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| www,shootthebreeze.ca (Marissa Baecker photo) |
Tonight’s Preview: Welcome to the second
last weekend of the regular season. Tonight the Kelowna Rockets play game three
of a six game home stand against the visiting Vancouver Giants. This is the 6th
of 8 meetings between these two teams. These two teams close out the season
with a home and home series next weekend. The Rockets are 4-1-0-0, having
beaten the G-Men in back-to-back games in February by scores of 6-0 and 5-0. Overall,
the Rockets have won 22 straight home games against them. The Rockets are
coming off a 4-3 win over the visiting Victoria Royals Tuesday night. Nolan
Foote, Leif Mattson, Calvin Thurkauf and Carsen Twarynski scored in the teams’
41st win of the season. The team has 14 wins in the last 17 games
(14-2-1-0) while earning a point in 12 of their last 13 games (11-1-1-0). Following
tonight’s game, the Rockets host Victoria tomorrow night. Overall, the Rockets
have won 5 straight and have scored 61 goals in their last 13 games.
The Matchup: Kole Lind and Calvin
Thurkauf each have 3+4=7 against the Giants this season. Cal Foote and Nick
Merkley each have 2+4=6 in five games. Nolan Foote has a hat trick against the
G-Men. Brodan Salmond has started in 4 of the 5 games, posting a record of
3-1-0-0 with a goals against average of 2.01 with back-to-back shutouts. In the
last 29 meetings, the Rockets are 25-4-0-0.
Milestones: Reid Gardiner played
in his 285th career game Tuesday night…Devante Stephens plays in his
200th game tomorrow night…Gordie Ballhorn plays in his 100th
game tomorrow night…Lucas Johansen is three games shy of 200 for his career.
Johansen also has 95 career points, 5 shy of 100.
Streak’n: Reid Gardiner enters
tonight’s game riding a 13 game point streak. Gardiner has 8+11=19 over that
stretch. The 21 year-old also has goals in 5 of his last 7 games. Rodney
Southam has points in 7 of his last 10 games with 6+7=13 over that stretch. Dillon Dube has points in 8 of his last 9
games (7+10=17). Dube also has goals in 6 of his last 8 games.
That’s a fact Jack: The Rockets have not
allowed a power play goal against in 10 of their last 13 games and have
successfully killed off 42 of their last 50 penalties….The Rockets have scored 258 goals this season, 18 more than at
the same time a year ago….The Rockets have allowed 196 goals against, 4 fewer
than at the same time last year….Michael
Herringer was named the WHL Goalie of the Week March 6th by posting
a record of 3-0-0-0 with a goals against average of 1.10….Lucas Johansen signed an entry level deal with the Washington
Capitals last Thursday. Johansen was a 1st round pick of the Caps
this summer…The Rockets have 87 points this season, with 10 available points over
the final 5 regular season games. The most points the team can earn this season
is 97, which puts them three shy of the 100 point barrier the team has reached
in each of the last four seasons…The
Rockets have played 35 road games this season, with one more stop in Vancouver…The Rockets have now won 20 or more
road games in five consecutive seasons. The last time they failed to hit 20
wins was in 2011-2012 when they won 15 games away from Prospera Place…The
Rockets have lost their last 4 overtime games …The 56 shots the Rockets put up
against the Vancouver Giants February 10th were a season high….The
15 shots the team surrendered February 22nd against the Edmonton Oil Kings was
a season low…The Rockets have generated 30 or more shots in 25 of their last 28
games…The Rockets have surrendered 5 or more goals 13 times this season. The
teams’ record, not surprisingly, is 1-11-2-0.
Broadcasters Bits: The Rockets were 15
points out of first place in the BC Division at one point. Now they are just
two points off the pace with a game in hand on Prince George…Four of the Rockets final 5 games are
against teams in the BC Division….The Rockets are 60-1-4-0 when leading after
40 minutes in the last two seasons….The Kelowna Rockets lost 10 of their first
21 regular season games. Since then, the team has 11 losses in the last 46
games… In the Rockets last 12 losses (regulation or overtime loss) the
opposition has opened the scoring…The Rockets are 16-6-2-0 since the trade
deadline The Rockets compiled a record
of 10-2-1-0 in 13 games in 26 days in February…The Rockets were 8-3-2-0 in
December...The Rockets were 6-4-0-0 in 10 games in November after going 8-4-0-0
in 12 games in October…The Rockets are the only team in the WHL that has failed
to surrender a shorthanded goal against this season…The Rockets are 17-12-0-0
against BC based teams this season …The Rockets are 11-3-3-0 against U.S
Division teams this season….The Rockets have allowed fewer shots on goal than
at the same time last year. The team has surrendered 222 fewer after 67 regular
season games.
Game Notes Compiled by Regan Bartel of AM 1150
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